Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-10-18
JOHN |. BLsIR'S MILLIONS.

He Has owned More Miles of Railroa,
Than any Other one Man.
New York Sun: John l. Blair, th,
witness before the Pacific railroad COM
mission last week, Is one of the oddes
characters in the country. He is already
beyond the regulation three score ane
ten, but looks after his ten or more mil
lions as vigorously as he used TO manage
his dollars y hen he was poor bul
thrifty ycungster In Warren county, N
X. He made his own start in life, and
got his first taste OF wealth from some
railroad building in Warren county. The
bnik OF his fortune, however, he gained
in building roads in Iowa. His general
scheme was to get up company to
oalid roads through nav territory. Thu
he got the people along the line to chip
IN enough to pay all the expenses OF
building the road, the work being done
by construction company, which
was himself in another form.
Bonds were Issued for thus and
stock equal in amount to the bonds was
issued to his company, which was also
himself. The building up of the country
By the road made the stock valuable and
John l. Blair rich. At ope time he own
ed more miles of railroad than any msn
IN tae country, Vanderbilt not excepted !.
lie bnilG the town or Btairstown, where
he lives in solidly magnificent place.
Ii is thriving village, some distance
from any where in New Jersey. To get
to it and away from it he built the
Blairstown railroad, the chief business
of which is to carry John L Blair back
and forth. He is the hero of inpumer.
able quaint anecdotes. A con lives in
fine style at Belvidere, N. J. Once a
friend, seeing the son drive O gorgeous
equipsge that cast the old mans modest
carriage into the shade, remarked on Che
difference.
swell, you see," said the millionaire
dryly. IL never had the advantage of o
rich father"
Oaee oot west some OF his men were
! arrested and when he wanted to 80 bail
Tor them the Judge, not impressed by
his rather rough exterior, insisted on
some evidence of his reliability as o
bondsman. fhs, Old hlan trottsd out q
few hundred Thousand dollars worth OF
government bonds that he had handy
and offered to produce several millions
OF good railroad bonds If he was given
few hours more notice,
Once he ran on the republican ticket
for governor OF New Jersey. The agree.
ment was that he was to furnish the
money end the politicians the experience.
He was not elected, and at the end OF the
campaign he he'd the experience and the
politicians had big heap OF the money.
1t was then that he told his famous
anecdote OF the western man who drove
3 lot OF hogs from st. Louis. where hogs
we're low, to Chicago, where they were
high, and finding that before be got
there the hog market had twisted
around 30 that swine were
higher in st. Louis than in Chicago,
drove the hogs back again, getting to
st. Louis just in time to strike depres-
sion In the st. Louis hog market, whIoh
wss matched by an elevation at Chicago,
The man said, SO the story went, that
he hadn't much money out Of it, but he
had had the society OF the hogs.
SWELL, I'm like that feller," said Blair.
II haven't been elected governor, but
I've had the society of the hogs.n
. Blair has dabbled in politics some
since then, but his experience was not
lost. His contributions to campaign
funds have never exceeded generosity.
He was delegate from New Jersey to
the convention that nominated Blaine,
and on the way out be kept whole car
load OF young politicians ny all night
by telling them funny stories. In the
morning be was the freshest and hearth
est man in the car.
He travels ail over the country alone.
as freely as though he were nearer eigh-
teen than eighty.